Cab-cottplibtgr



A. 00T. .Car Coupling.

,Patented oct. 23, 1860.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

ADAM OOT, OF MINETTO, NEW' YORK.

CAR-COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 30,496, dated October 23, 1860.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ADAM OoT,o Minetto, in the county of Oswego andState of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement inAutomatic Railroad-Car Couplings; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part o thisspecification in which- Figure l is a longitudinal view of one of thebumpers or draw heads, exhibiting the elbow or hook of the same, whennot in operation. Fig. 2 represents the draw head, or bumper in aposition ready for operation. Fig. 3 is a plan view of my coupling inoperation. Fig. 4L is a section view of my coupling in the samecondition, as represented in Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 is a front end view ofone of the bumpers.

Similar letters of reference. in each of the ligures indicatecorresponding parts.

Before going into a minute description of my invention, I would remarkthat I am aware, that a great number of automatic car-couplings havebeen patented, and that the same principle which I have adopted in mycoupling hasV been embodied in some of these, and that therefore I donot intend to cover by my patent, and new principle, but simply theembodiment of an old principle in a new, and improved organization ofmechanism.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, A, represent the bumper, or draw head of a car.

The socket B, B, is made iaring at its front end in every direction, soas to readily admit the coupling link D. The socket at the front end ismade larger than at its rear end, or from the front to the rear ends ofthe socket it diminishes in size. By thus constructing the socket, thedeep portion B, B, in front is of suiiicient size to readily admit thelink and allow the same considerable up and down play, but the shallowportion (Z, in the rear of the slot o, o, is but a trifle larger thanthe link, and when the link enters the shallow portion of the socket ithas no chance to play, and consequently remains in a horizontalposition, or in such a position in the bottom of the bumper or draw headthat the hook of an approaching, or stationary car will certainly strikethe link, in the right manner to insure a perfect coupling of the twocars together.

C, C, represent the elbow or lever hook of the bumper or draw head.'Ihis hook is attached to an axle rod c e which passes through the hook,and also through the bumper or draw head above t-he socket. The verticalportion m, of the hook passes down through the slots b, o, the frontside of the slot o, acting as a stop to the extremity oi said portion ofthe hook, and the slot ZJ, providing room for the lower end of the hookto play backward and when it is desired to effect an uncoupling of thecars.

The lever f, f, attached to the axle rod e extends down diagonally atthe side of the bumper or drawhead, and is of a proper length to give asufiicient leverage to lift the hook out of the link, or overcome thelongitudinal strain upon the link, when the cars are in motion, andsafety requires a discontinuance of one or more cars of the train.

The position of the lever is such that the hook will always have atendency to keep down in the link, when the train is checked or when thelongitudinal' pull against the hook from any cause ceases.

At the end of the lever a chain is attached, g g, the end of whic iextends to the platform if a passenger car, or to the top of the car ifa freight car, thus enabling an uncoupling to be effected by a simplepull on the chain. This arrangement is far preferable to a leverattached to the hook and extending horizontally either backward orforward above the bumper or drawhead, as such horizontal lever must bemore or less in the way of persons passing from one car to another, andif used on cars designed for the carrying of freight, the horizontallever compels the train-hand to climb down to the bumper or drawhead, toeffect an uncoupling, whereas the chain, will instantaneously lift thehook out of the link, thereby saving time, and avoiding the risk ofdescending to, the drawhead or bumper while the cars are at full speed.

The front side of the hook is made concave, so as to insure a slippingof the link down under the hook when it comes in contact with the same,and the rear side of the hook, at its extremity is made slightly convex,so that it will immediately slip out of the link, when the operation ofuncoupling is being performed.

Just above that part of the hook made conveX a small notch is sunk (seeFig. l 71,) which eectually keeps the link from upward play while inmotion.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that my invention is thedesideratum sought by railroad companies, it being nearly as simple asthe common coupling pin, and yet free from very great objection to thesame, viz: the necessity of men risking their lives in going between thecars to adjust it. It also possesses the very great advantage ofproviding sufiicient leverage in the hook itself, whereby the cars canbe uncoupled while in motion or exerting longitudinal strain on thelinks, by an upward pull of the train-hand, upon the chain, and thus thepower of the train-hand obtained, instead of only his weight as inlever-links which are operated by a downward thrust.

What I claim as my invention, and desirel ADAM OOT. Witnesses:

JAMES TRIMBLE, ANTHONY Oo'r.

